Musings

Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Socialist Problem

The Socialists desire to spread the wealth. They see a population that has many inequities and, believing that it is the structure of that population, simply want to change the structure so that it is fair or just in their eyes. They think: if the wealth of some could be moved to others that do not have, then, the population would reach a happier level. Some people that had much would have less and some people that had little would have more. What could be easier to understand - just change the structure.

Pol Pot believed that all the wealth was concentrated in the city. His solution to changing the structure was to empty the city, move the entire citizenry out of the city and force them into the country side to earn their living. Yes, he moved everybody out. Emptied all the buildings, hospitals, schools, houses and put them on the road to move to the country side.

Hitler believed that the Jews in Germany had too much wealth and decided to take their wealth. He systematically forced their business to close. First by boycott and then by violence. Krystalnacht was the time that Jewish business had their windows broken and the owners terrified. When a business closed the State was there to reap the rewards.

Stalin believed the Kulaks, who owned most of the large farms, were a problem in Russian society. He decided to turn the land over to the people by declaring the large farms as communes. The communes would be run by the people on the land. What did he do to the Kulaks? He put them on trains to Siberia to fend for themselves.

Hans Konicker of East Germany put many restrictive policies in place to redistribute the wealth. Those that did not want their wealth taken merely walked out of East Germany into other sectors of Germany. This caused a worker and brain drain on the society that Konicker could not let happen. He built a wall so that East Germans could not escape. Those that tried to climb the wall were shot.

Cat Sunsteen, an advisor to President Obama, knowing that quick extreme measures did not accomplish the wealth distribution desired for the long run, has designed a program of "nudging". That is: making changes but only small changes so that the population is not fully disrupted. A small change here, a small change there, and eventually the goal will be achieved. For the most part it is done here with taxes. The graduated income tax was supposed to take more from the rich and less from the poor. Because their are still rich people it now becomes necessary to almost confiscate all the earnings that a rich person makes. That is why we hear that millionaires and billionaires should pay more. And why should they pay more? Because as President Obama has stated: "for fairness".

Here is the problem. When two persons working side-by-side are sharing the work and the earnings that is fairness. When one person does not do the quantity of work of the other, yet gets the same earnings there is an element of unfairness. When one person does almost nothing yet gets some of the earnings it is extremely unfair. How long does it take before the person doing the work loses heart, or ambition, or desire, and says: "How stupid am I to do all this work and see the fruits of my labor go to others. I will not work as hard, or as long, as I do. I will just take it easy." It is impossible to know how many people do this. It is a little easier to measure capital movements.

High tax states are seeing business move out of their states to those states that do not tax as much. High valued people are also moving out of those states. Unions have desired to build a wall around a business (as East Germany did) so that the jobs cannot be taken elsewhere. Corporations decide to build factories where the taxes are less, even building them overseas. Cat Sunsteen is nudging but sometimes the nudge is enough to nudge into another state or country.

Today, the Democrats are trying to tax the rich more and are doing all they can to get the people to hate the rich. Hate is being used to further the socialist goals. It is amazing that Christians fall for this when one of their Commandments is: "Thou shall not covet thy neighbors goods."

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Evil

In the "Lord's Prayer" there are four petitions made to God, one of them is: "deliver us from evil". Do we really know for what we are asking? I believe the Muslim hijackers that flew the planes on 9/11 were evil. Further, the person that was late for the flight, and because of being late, did not die in the crash was delivered from evil. If that person had prayed that day, "deliver us from evil", then that persons prayer was answered.

Those pilots were evil for what they did. Is there some way we can identify a person that is evil? Do we always have to wait until the evil act is done?

We are trained to find the good in everybody and that can cause us to be insensitive to those that are truly evil. After all, not everybody is good. A Christan believes that he is capable of doing evil, that he is flawed, and must be constantly on guard to keep from trespassing on others. For the most part the christian is able to do this, but it is a struggle, and through prayer is able to thwart evil actions.

Can God be evil? Sad to say there is an instance in the Bible where God is actually quoted as saying he plans on doing an evil on some people. You may remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Was God justified?

Can Obama be evil? We know that he has designs on spreading the wealth of others. Some have even used the term "the evil rich" because the rich will not willingly give up their riches.

Can you be evil? Setting aside practical jokes, have you ever done an evil thing to somebody? If you did, did you enjoy doing it? Did you repent of such an action, or were you sorry you did it.

The Book of Job, in the Bible, is reported to be about evil. Yet it is God that brings him his sufferings. God is intentionally doing it so that he can show the Devil that Job is a good follower. Some scholars have maintained that The Book of Job is not a Hebrew book and does not belong in the Bible. Yet, there it is for our amazement and befuddlement.

Two men work side by side for ten minutes. One stops working while the other continues to work for a full eight hours. A buyer comes by and for $480.00 buys the whole lot that has been produced. How do you split the proceeds? If it is other than $10.00/$470.00, say $240.00/$240.00, or some other fraction other than the first, is there evil involved?

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Cell Phones

The cell phone is a great benifit to mankind because of the easy access to another person that is not nearby. My personal thanks to the designers is based on how easy it is to connect with someone at the airport. With the "cell-park" being close by, it is possible to wait for the traveler in the comfort of your car, with the music you like, at the temperature you like. Possible confusion, frustration and anxieties caused by delays are ameliorated. Life becomes sweet and people behave better toward one another.

My usage of this phone is about five minutes every month. The people I know, being secure in adulthood, do not need input from me to live their lives. I am aware that there are many other people that must keep in constant touch or their world will fall apart. Those people must be very thankfull for this technology in their lives, and may be mystified to find that other people, before this invention, were actually able to survive without this device.

The recent heatwave has knocked out cell phones for many on the eastern seaboard. I don't know which is worse, to lose communication power or to lose air conditioning. For me, of course, it would be air conditioning. How does a person that is so sensitive to recognize only one degree of difference in night time sleeping adjust to the soaring temperatures some are having at this time? If my night temperature, usually held at 79 degrees, goes up to 80 I will remove a sheet and sleep without covering. At 81 degrees I am not able to sleep and I will perspire.

The train that was recently stopped on the track for 20 hours had passengers that lamented the loss of cell phones. Some even climbing a nearby high hill to try to communicate. For me, my concern is personal comfort. Of course, if I was waiting at the train terminal and the train did not arrive, I would be pleased to get a call to let me know what had happened.